section 5 number 24

[hasibul.alam]

Nineteenth-century architect Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc contended that Paris’s Notre-Dame cathedral, built primarily in the late twelfth century, was supported from the very beginning by a system of flying buttresses — a series of exterior arches (flyers) and their supports (buttresses) — which permitted the construction of taller vaulted buildings with slimmer walls and interior supports than had been possible previously. Other commentators insist, however, that Notre-Dame did not have flying buttresses until the thirteenth or fourteenth century, when they were added to update the build- ing aesthetically and correct its structural flaws. Although post-twelfth-century modi- fications and renovations complicate efforts to resolve this controversy — all pre-fifteenth-century flyers have been replaced, and the buttresses have been rebuilt and/or resurfaced — it is nevertheless possible to tell that both the nave and the choir, the church’s two major parts, have always had flying buttresses. It is clear, now that nineteenth-century paint and plaster have been removed, that the nave’s lower but- tresses date from the twelfth century. Moreover, the choir’s lower flyers have chevron (zigzag) decoration. Chevron decoration, which was characteristic of the second half of the twelfth century and was out of favor by the fourteenth century, is entirely absent from modifications to the building that can be dated with confidence to the thirteenth century.

The author’s argument concerning Notre-Dame’s flying buttresses depends on which of the following assumptions about the choir’s lower flyers?
A They accurately reproduce the decoration on the choir’s original lower flyers.
B They have a type of decoration used exclusively for exterior surfaces.
C They were the models for the choir’s original upper flyers.
D They were the models for the nave’s original lower flyers.
E They were constructed after the nave’s flyers were constructed.


the ans is - a . but i dont understand how this possible. plz help

[tommywallach]

Because of the sentence: "all pre-fifteenth-century flyers have been replaced." This means the flyers in question MUST have been replaced (they were originally built in the twelfth century) at some point. So the fact that they have chevrons is meaningless in terms of learning things about the original construction...unless those chevrons were on the ORIGINAL flyers. Answer choice (A) tells us that the two flyers (old and new) had all the same features, which would mean the chevrons were on the original flyers as well.

-t